The Kano/Jigawa Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday said it has uncovered six Toyota Hilux vans worth N12 million each hidden at a hideout in Kano State.
Addressing reporters in Kano, the Customs Area Controller Yusuf Abba Kassim said the vehicles were discovered following a tip-off.
He further explained that the vehicles were evacuated to the command because they were suspected to have been smuggled into the country, adding that they would remain in custody pending when the owners show up to produce relevant Customs particulars.
Kassim also disclosed that the command has generated over N8,070,570,235.37 against the projected target of N7,389,024,423.42 as its revenue between January and June 2018.
According to him, the command has also surpassed its revenue target of 681,545, 811.95k given to it by the Comptroller General, Col. Hameed I. Ali (rtd).
He said that over 74 seizures were made during the anti-smuggling raids of the command.
According to him, the command was also able to recover N266,944,264.00k from various duty paid value (DPV) from various contraband impounded by the command.
Kassim explained that the reasons for the achievements recorded by the command was as a result of the proactive measures put in place by the command to rid the states of smugglers.
“With the efforts of the resilient officers of the command, some items were intercepted and seized during the raids on boarders and warehouses within the metropolitan areas of the states,” he said.
The items seized, according to him, include “41 motor vehicles units, 8,677 bags of foreign rice (50kg each), 884 cartons of foreign spaghetti, and 1,955 jerry cans of 25 litres of foreign vegetable oil”.
Others include: 29 bales of secondhand clothes, 24 cartons of foreign soap, 103 bags (50kg) of foreign sugar, 11 sacks of assorted used bags, as well as assorted used shoes numbering 788 sacks.
The comptroller stressed that his command remained committed to its statutory duties to rid the states of contraband and smuggling activities which have devastating effects on the Nigerian economy.
He also called on the general public to assist the command with useful information that would aid the command in its operations.
